“There is no surer way of evading the world than by Art; and no better way of connecting with it than by Art”.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Eva Antonini was born in Rapperswil (Switzerland), the place of her childhood and adolescence. As a young girl, Eva reveals a natural proneness for molding clay, matter that later will be privileged in the creation of sculptures of medium and large dimensions.
From 1981 to 1985 she lives in Geneva, where she takes her first steps in the working world, simultaneously pursuing her linguistic education, enriched by a series of journeys and stays in England, Italy and United States with stops in the Middle and Far East.
In 1985 she moves to the Canton Ticino (Italian speaking part of Switzerland) with the intention of refining her linguistic knowledge, particularly in Italian and English.
From 2002 she definitely plunges into the passion and choice of an artistic life.
Along the way she acquires fundamental knowledge on such matters like clay, plaster, alabaster and marble. Together with specialization courses, she attends studios of master sculptors such as Oreste and Antonio Quattrini, Giorgio Eros Morandini, Giovanni Cimatti and Ettore Greco.
In 2003 she takes part in the first collective exhibitions and in 2005 she is the recipient of a Prize for sculpture at the International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Florence.
In 2006 she receives her first commission for the creation of a bronze sculpture to be placed in an open space.
Her research continues relentlessly, enhanced by the participation in international exhibitions and symposia, which will challenge her artistic stimuli, while she is stepping up her game in front of creation.
Her creative activity becomes more and more impetuous and exhilarating, mainly during nightly silence. The possibility to transfer her ideas and emotions into the material almost obsessively pervades her. A torment alternated by euphoria, especially in front of a completed work, followed by the impatience and ardour to start a new creation. Volumes, harmony of forms, the body’s language, fragility, mystery and expressiveness fascinate her more and more. While working with materials such as marble, alabaster and plaster, her profound and almost ancestral attraction always and regularly leads her back to clay, which despite its toughness, has her predilection.
The body as the soul’s “translator” into the visible! Following this central theme, Eva Antonini creates body and face fragments, which carry the marks of time, the scars of life. Fragments representing some sort of Life Maps, contemplating the fleetingness of the moment, the transience of life, the metamorphosis between past and present.
In 2010 and 2012 some of her work is chosen for the exhibition at the Carrousel du Louvre, headed by the National Fine Arts Society of Paris.
In 2018 she officially inaugurates her new and very sizeable studio. The same year she is awarded with a Sculpture Prize by Artemilano.
In 2020 she is commissioned by the Municipality of Capriasca with the creation of a bronze sculpture to be placed on the new Alfonsina Storni Plaza.
Her expository curriculum of solo and group exhibitions ranges from Switzerland, to Italy, Austria and Spain and from France to the United States.
EXHIBITIONS
| Switzerland | ||
| 2003 | Mendrisio: | MEART Sculptures in the village |
| 2004 | Lugano: | PAX Insurance |
| 2004 | Rapperswil: | Gallery Seewiese |
| 2005 | Savosa: | Centro Atlantide |
| 2005 | Stabio: | La materia e lo spirito Restaurant Montalbano |
| 2006 | Ascona: | Fra sogni e risvegli Gallery Dartecon |
| 2006 | Lugano: | Exhibit/charity auction - NGO ABBA Lugano |
| 2006 | Bellinzona-Castelgrande: | I falsi volti Exhibit/charity auction - Association Dialogare-Incontri |
| 2008 | Mendrisio: | MEART Sculptures in the village |
| 2008 | Castione: | Artist’Otto at La Fabrique |
| 2009 | Lugano Casinò: | Casino: Exhibit/charity auction - Swiss Society for MS |
| 2009 | Lugano: | KBL Ltd Private Bank |
| 2010 | Mendrisio: | MEART Sculptures in the village |
| 2010 | Lugano: | Exhibit/charity auction at Casa Pasquée - SAM Massagno |
| 2010 | Roveredo (GR): | Openart - openair sculpture exhibition |
| 2011 | Balerna: | Terra e altrove Sala del Torchio, Solo exhibition |
| 2011 | Lugano: | Open Gallery collettiva presso Galleria Sestante |
| 2011 | Roveredo (GR): | Openart - openair sculpture exhibition |
| 2012 | Lugano: | Fire Anatomies UBS SA - solo exhibition, |
| 2012 | Lugano: | Reminiscence Sestante Gallery - solo exhibition |
| 2013 | Dangio: | NYB'13, group exhibit, realized by sculpture-network.org, simoultaneously in 12 European countries |
| 2013 | Capriasca: | Open Studio - Open Doors in art studios |
| 2013 | Zurigo: | Art International Zurich - International Contemporary Art Fair |
| 2013 | Riva S. Vitale: | Contrappunti - bipersonal exhibit sculpture and paintings with Dina Moretti |
| 2015 | Mendrisio: | NYB '15 International Contemporary Sculpture Celebration at Perseo Art Foundry |
| 2016 | Capriasca: | OPEN STUDIO - Open Doors in art studios |
| 2018 | Capriasca: | Artistic Festival La carezza perduta (The lost embrace) |
| 2018 | Capriasca: | Open Studio Capriasca - Open Doors in art studios |
| 2019 | Lugano: | YouNique - International Fine Art - Design and Craft Exhibition - Villa Ciani |
| 2020 | Lugano: | Sculptural talk - Gypsothèque Giudici |
| 2021 | Roveredo (GR): | OPENART - group exhibition of outdoor sculptures |
| 2022 | Lugano: | YouNique - International Fine Art - Design and Craft Exhibition - Villa Ciani |
| 2022 | Figino: | gARTen - Bipersonal sculpture exhibit with Cesare de Vita |
| 2022 | Lugaggia: | Amleto Solo - Theatrical-sculptoral studio performance with actor Marco Ballerini |
| 2022 | Lugaggia: | Dust Kreations - bipersonal exhibit/event with Davide Maule, jewellery artist |
| 2022 | Capriasca: | OPEN STUDIO - Open Doors in art studio |
| 2023 | Lugano: | YouNique - International Fine Art - Design and Craft Exhibition - Villa Ciani |
| Italy | ||
| 2005 | Ferrara: | Tra Realtà ed Emozione Castello Estense, Ass. Culturale - Ferrara ProArt |
| 2005 | Padova: | Int'l art fair with Leonart Gallery |
| 2005 | Firenze: | Int'l Biennal for Contemporary Art (5th prize) |
| 2006 | Menaggio: | Human Touch D'art Visual Gallery |
| 2007 | Menaggio: | Eros D'art Visual Gallery |
| 2007 | Milano: | Generation linkage at Oscar Signorini Foundation |
| 2008 | Bologna: | Generation linkage Gallery 9 Colonne, Oscar Signorini Foundation |
| 2008 | Cannero Riviera: | Incorporation Gallery/hotel Il Cortile |
| 2013 | Biella: | Solitudini allo specchio (loneliness in the mirror) Bassanese Gallery |
| 2014 | Milano: | Affordable Art Fair - Via Tortona 27, Milan |
| 2014 | Porto Cervo: | Group Exhibition - Simon Bart Art Gallery |
| 2014 | Poltu Quato: | Group Exhibition - Il Novecento Art Gallery |
| 2014 | S. Gimignano: | Group exhibition - Isculpture Art Gallery |
| 2014 | Casole d’Elsa | Group exhibition - Isculpture Art Gallery |
| 2015 | Cannero Riviera: | Hotel/Art Gallery Il Cortile |
| 2015 | Tradate: | Group exhibition - Officina Feniciana |
| 2016 | Milano: | International Furniture and Design Fair |
| 2018 | Milano: | ArteMilano, group exhibition at Steam Factory Milan (Prize for sculpture) |
| 2019 | Gubbio: | Silenziose Terre - Solo Exhibition at the historical Palazzo del Bargello under patronage of the Town Municipality |
| 2020 | Milano: | Emotional Shakes - Affordable Art Fair |
| 2023 | Cannero Riviera: | Strada dell'Arte (Art in the streets) - Large in- and outdoor exhibit |
| France | ||
| 2010 | Marseille : | SIAC Int'l Fair for Contemporay Art |
| 2010 | Lourmarin: | Galerie du Temple - group exhibition |
| 2010 | Cogolin (St.Tropez): | Trans'Arts Centre Maurin des Maures - group exhibition |
| 2010 | Paris: | Salon 2010 de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvre - group exhibit |
| 2011 | Mérindol: | Sculpture Symposium and Exhibition, city centre |
| 2011 | Roquebrune s/Argens: | Sculpture en Liberté group exhibition |
| 2012 | Paris: | Salon 2010 de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvre - group exhibit |
| Spain | ||
| 2015 | Ibiza: | "Garden of Eden" P|Art Ibiza Gallery, Santa Eulalia - group exhibit |
| Austria | ||
| 2019 | Vienna: | ART AUSTRIA International Contemporary Art Fair (with Van Gogh Art Gallery) |
| USA | ||
| 2006 | New York: | Ouvertures Agora Gallery, Chelsea, group exhibition |
| 2022 | Sarasota (FL): | Art Avenue Gallery - Group exhibition |